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28 March 2012

Telkom set to change broadband in SA

Telkom today revealed significant progress on the Company’s journey to transform its network. The destination is an all-IP network designed to enable fixed-mobile convergence and truly differentiated high speed broadband.

This follows Telkom GCEO Nombulelo Moholi’s announcement of the network transformation plans at the Company’s annual results presentation in June 2011.

"We are happy to report major traction against these plans," said Mr Bashier Sallie, Telkom's Managing Director of Wholesale and Networks. "The journey to a future-proof network is based on a comprehensive set of network interventions. We have commenced the last, and arguably the most challenging, of these interventions - a revamp of our access network."

Mr Sallie explained that the revamp of Telkom’s access network aims to enable a truly differentiated broadband capability.

"We will take our fibre deeper into the network, thanks to new fibre capabilities, and will smartly leverage a mix of access technologies, namely very high speed DSL technology (VDSL2) in a fibre-to-the-curb configuration and passive optic fibre (PON) configuration directly to the home or business premises. Given the mix of customer broadband needs, a dispersed customer base and vast geography in SA, Telkom has chosen FTTx as our solution to ensure commercial and service sustainability," said Mr Sallie.

He explained that an access network is only as good as the underlying transmission and core network.

"We have gone a long way in revamping our aggregation network, which is now able to support  super-fast transmission and enable a superior browsing experience. We have also transformed our  transmission network which has evolved from carrying Gbit/s to Tbit/s throughput with great resilience and manageability. Our international connectivity has received a major boost to ensure worldwide reach with superb capacity and resilience.

Contrary to popular belief, Mr Sallie indicated that Telkom does in fact today have significant fibre-to-the-curb and fibre-to-the-business premises deployed. We currently have in excess of 15 000 Fibre Distribution Points (FDPs) and have recently changed our processes and business rules to make this more readily available. In addition Telkom has DSL coverage for 93% of its current customer base through 2700 fibre access nodes or DSLAMs on a last mile copper access, offering ADSL and ADSL2+ technology which facilitates a range of broadband speeds up to 10Mbps.

"We aim to increase our FTTC rollout to 3700 points of presence in the country. This new generation fibre access node will enable VDSL, VDSL2+ and xPON speeds.

"Our FTTx deployment is supported by more than 143 000 km of Telkom fibre in our national, regional and access networks across the country. Scale and presence is important and Telkom certainly has this, but depth of experience and the ability to innovate and utilise all the capabilities in the network to extract the value is crucial.

"Telkom has an unquestionable track record of world class delivery on large complex projects; the 2010 Soccer World Cup being a prime example. This differentiates us from the rest. Our network transformation will change the face of broadband capability in South Africa and I am confident that Telkom will execute successfully," concluded Mr Sallie.

For further enquiries, please contact:

Pynee Chetty

Senior Specialist: Media Relations

Group Communication

Tel:+27 12 642 1716

Mobile: +27 81 389 7874

Email: chettpr2@telkom.co.za

OR

Leigh-Ann Francis

Specialist: Media Relations

Group Communication

Tel: +27 12 642 1728

Mobile: +27 81 391 4780

Email: francilm@telkom.co.za

Telkom Park, The Apex

92 Oak Avenue

Technopark

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ABOUT TELKOM:

Telkom is a leading communications services provider in South Africa. We had consolidated operating revenue of R16.8 billion and normalised profit after tax of R1, 683 million for the period ended 30 September 2015. Total assets amounted to R41.9 billion and equity attributable to the owners of Telkom to R23.5 billion as of 30 September 2015. The group generated normalised free cash flow of R1.4 billion for the period ended 30 September 2015.

As of 30 September 2015, we had approximately 3.3 million telephone access lines in service and 1,030,441 ports connected via MSAN access. We offer business, residential and payphone customers a wide range of services and products, including:

  • fixed-line retail voice services using PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network) lines, including ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network) lines, and the sale of subscription based value-added voice services and calling plans;
  • fixed-line customer premises equipment rental and sales services both voice and data needs and these include PABX, Computers, Routers, Modems, Telephone handsets and other ancillary equipment;
  • interconnection services, including terminating and transiting traffic from South African mobile operators, as well as from international operators and transiting traffic from mobile to international destinations;
  • fixed-line data services, including domestic and international data transmission services, such as point-to-point leased lines, ADSL (Asymmetrical Digital Subscriber Line) services, packet-based services, managed data networking services and internet access and related information technology services;
  • Data Centre Operations includes e-commerce, application service provider, hosting, data storage, e-mail and security services;
  • W-CDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access), a 3G next generation network, including fixed voice services, data services and nomadic voice services;
  • mobile communication services, including voice services, data services and handset sales through our mobile navbar-brand called Telkom Mobile;
  •  information and communication services including cloud services, infrastructure services, workspace services, global service integration management and hardware and network equipment sales locally, in seven African countries, the UK and Dubai through Business Connexion Group; and
  • other services including directory services, through Trudon (Pty) Ltd, wireless data services, through Swiftnet (Pty) Ltd.

Convergence is one of our key strategic initiatives in building a sustainable future for Telkom.  We will lead the provision of converged services in South Africa in support of our mission statement: Seamlessly connecting people to a better life.